Back to results
US 2003/0112145 A1Published application
Thermoelectric fire alarm device
OwnerDaniel T. Allen, John C. Bassinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A thermoelectric fire alarm system capable of generating electric power. A thermoelectric device is compressed between a heat absorbing plate and a cold side heat sink. A fire heats the plate. A phase change material is provided to absorb heat at an approximately constant temperature to keep the cold side heat sink relatively cold to provide at least a temporary temperature differential across the thermoelectric device allowing the device to generate sufficient electric power to activate an alarm identifying the fire.
Claims11
A thermoelectric fire alarm system comprised of:
- A) a heat receiving plate comprised of a material capable of high temperature operation,
- B) a cold unit comprising a container containing a phase change material which undergoes a phase change at a predetermined temperature,
- C) a thermoelectric module compressed between said plate and said cold unit, said module having a plurality of p-legs and a plurality of n-legs, said p-legs and said n-legs being electrically connected to produce from said thermoelectric module electric power at a desired voltage resulting from the temperature difference between said plate and said unit, and
- D) an electric circuit comprising an electric storage device, and alarm and a trigger switch for discharging said electric storage device in order to activate the alarm.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.